Is there any kind of agreed definition of "collapse"? Currencies rise, currencies fall. The GBPEUR rate today (1.15) appears to be almost exactly the same as it was in early July 2013, almost ten whole years ago.
When this article was written in January 2017, the pound was at about 1.15, which would have been down from 1.35 a year before - a loss of around 15 percent.
Looking over a broader time-range, before the financial crisis in 2008, the pound was roughly stable at around 1.45 EUR. This fell during the recession years, but was reaching 1.40 levels again in 2015. Since the referendum it has consistently been between roughly 1.20 and 1.10.
So, in summary - there was a fall (not sure I'd necessarily say a collapse) in the value of the pound as a direct response to the Brexit referendum. However the pound had been low (c. 1.15) in value since 2007, apart from a bump in mid-2014 to mid-2016
Umm, Cameron announced that he would propose to hold a referendum on EU membership if his party won the next general election way back in January 2013 [0]
The GBPEUR midrate at the end of that month was 1.167 [1]
Doesn't look quite as much of a story if one were to write about the British pound "plunging" from 1.167 when the possibility of a Brexit was first mentioned to, umm, 1.15 the day after the vote, does it?
BTW, I fully appreciate that the immediate movement due to the outcome of the vote was large, but there were a lot of expectations baked in, Cameron also promptly resigned after "losing" the vote, and political shocks like those aren't necessarily what you look for if you're hoping for a strong currency!
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jan/23/david-camer... [1] https://www.xe.com/currencytables/?from=GBP&date=2013-01-31
But your comment is dead on - this doesn’t feel like a collapse it feels like currency fluctuations, at least from the outside.
The lowest rate I see in July 2013 is 1.48 (NOT 1.148). Todays rate is 1.24. Down 17%?
The usual rate was somewhere around 1.6 pre-Brexit, down ~25%. I think that's a bigger shift than ever seen outside of (other) catastrophes...
We're talking about two different currency pairs, I quoted GBP EUR rates, you're referencing GBP USD rates... ?